A booze-filled brawl that left a man dead was the low point of a weekend crackdown in Australia and New Zealand targeting alcohol-related violence.
Thousands of extra officers were deployed in known trouble spots across Australia, as part of Operation Unite on Friday and Saturday nights.
The NSW campaign easily resulted in the largest number of arrests in the nation for the weekend, 737, and also claimed the "low point" of the blitz with the death of a 46-year-old man.
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The man was allegedly assaulted during a confrontation with a 26-year-old man after they left a licensed premise at Barrack Heights, south of Wollongong, about 10.30pm (AEST) on Friday.
The younger man allegedly struck the victim who fell backwards and hit his head on the ground. He died a short time later in hospital.
The 26-year-old man was charged on Saturday night with manslaughter and affray.
Police believe alcohol was involved in the incident and said in a statement that the death was "the tragic low-point" of the weekend.
In Melbourne, police made 132 arrests over the weekend.
They arrested 110 people for drunkenness in Melbourne and 22 people were arrested for assaults.
Police also visited 687 licensed premise and detected 54 licensing breaches that included premises serving under-age
patrons, drunk persons on premises, too many patrons in the premises and not meeting licence requirements.
The second night of the crackdown resulted in 110 arrests in Perth.
It was a quieter night for police than Friday when two police officers were injured in separate incidents.
A male police officer was punched in the face by a man who allegedly refused to pay a taxi fare.
In a separate attack, a female police officer suffered minor injuries when a beer bottle that was thrown at a police patrol car shattered over her.
In South Australia police arrested 41 people, reported 31 people and recorded five assaults over the two nights.
In Queensland the operation resulted in 279 people being arrested over the weekend.
Hundreds of people were arrested in the Northern Territory, with about three-quarters - or 320 - of those taken into custody from Alice Springs.
